B2B e-commerce: how hard can it be? 20 challenges related to the B2B buying process
Abstract: This thesis addresses e-commerce in a B2B context through a participative case study at Ericsson AB. First, a literature review is conducted in which it is argued that previous academic work on B2B e-commerce can be divided into four main topics: consideration, adoption, implementation, and evaluation. E-commerce implementation is subsequently chosen as the main focal point for our empirical analysis as this area has significant practical relevance but has received relatively little academic attention. The empirical analysis consists of two rounds of interviews. The first round of interviews comprises a pre-study and results in a model to study B2B e-commerce implementation. This model is used during our second round of interviews with six different telecom operators and leads to the identification of twenty challenges related to the B2B buying process. In addition, a new order for e-commerce implementation is proposed in which pre-purchase and post-purchase stages of the buying process are prioritized over ordering. Finally, by relating our findings to previous academic work this thesis leads to theory refinement within the literature on e-commerce consideration, adoption, and implementation and theory refutation and -discovery within the literature on implementation.
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